[drpaul]

can I get your email?

I can never see the words Joplin, Missouri the same anymore. Still praying for the community & wishing everyone the best.

[drpaul]

TSV…….that’s awesome, thanks so much

where are you?

[drpaul]

If you waited until a pb in competition to change training parameters that would defeat the purpose so yes, change them now if your kids are hitting them. According to Dr. Rushall, they should pretty much NEVER complete a set. Occasionally, I design a set to ensure they complete it only to boost their confidence so they don’t feel like they are failing every practice. Btw, we use the word miss instead of fail. This may help also:

“Step 9: Incrementally Adjust Performance Criteria in a Set to Stimulate Improvement
Step 5 required the coach to assign the number of repetitions for each set in the practice session. Periodically (usually within a microcycle) the set should be repeated to determine if training effects are being achieved and to assert swimmers’ performance progress. Initially, if the set is designed as 30 x 50 at 400 SCm race-pace on a 55 seconds interval, it is expected that the number of successful swims before the first failure and/or the total number of successful repetitions will increase. However, in selecting 30 repetitions it is expected that no one would complete the 30. If that occurred, then the set was too easy for the swimmer. The task involved in the set should always guarantee that swimmers will fail. That feature guarantees that a training effect for the race with which the set is related will occur.
With successive improvements, swimmers will start to approach final participation a few repetitions before or on the final repetition in the set. Other swimmers might have recorded three occurrences in a row that is interpreted as “no improvement”. [That usually means they have achieved their upper limit of adaptation.] In either case it is time to make the set more difficult so the swimmer will be challenged to improve again. The single alteration to increase difficulty is to make the time for each repetition marginally faster. The size of that margin has to be sufficient so that the swimmer can judge the repetition time with the timing device, such as the sweep-hand clock illustrated previously.
If the increased swimming velocity is marginal in a repetition, and that repetition is one-quarter of the target race, in the total race it will be a significant improvement. For example, if a swimmer changes from 31+ to 31- seconds for 50 SCm for 200 freestyle, that results in a change from a 2:06 high to a 2:05 low target time for a race. To garner such improvements, the swimmer has to be able to discern a difference between the “new” and the “old” repetition times when timing each new repetition.
It is reasonable to expect swimmers to spend no more than three weeks, and more likely two, repeating the same set. Improvements should come that fast. For example, six exposures to a set should take a swimmer from completing 12 repetitions successfully before failure on the first attempt to improving by one more repetition on every successive attempt at the set. After completing a set six times, swimmers should be approaching the upper limit of their adaptation.
The judgment of altering swimmers’ programs and USRPT set challenges is something coaches will have to determine. There are likely to be errors as well as successes in the aptness of incrementally challenging swimmers to improve in all races by appropriately designed training sets. The decisions in this matter are very important and should not be treated lightly. If an error is to be made it would be to challenge changes in swimmers too slowly than too fast.”

[drpaul]

mkmust10,

There’s a lot I (we) can’t discern from your post alone but a couple things stand out to me.

1) it is waaay early in there training to see the benefits IMO. I too am only a few weeks into our USRPT and it’s taken us this long just to get going & work out the kinks in a new training style. Those neural pathways are so ingrained in them it’s going to take a while to adapt. We have a LC meet in 4 weeks & I have no clue what to expect & neither so they ta this point. I (we) just know it’s the right thing to do.

This bullet by Rushall helped me a lot
http://coachsci.sdsu.edu/swim/bullets/45b%20ADAPTING.pdf

2) According to the doc, mixed training will get you mixed results so it’s impossible to tell what is going to come out of USRPT training when 50% of their training is still traditional. I’m not sure your purpose for doing this? Meaning, are you experimenting with USRPT or are you not allowed to go 100% with it?

I understand the frustration & wish you guys the best going forward

Paul

[drpaul]

billratio,

check my post on new bulletin #49. It lays out how much. Of course this is once the kids get up to speed (which could take a while) and depends on what events they are training for.

paul

[drpaul]

DeeS47,

Great to hear the excitement from the kids. I wouldn’t let them continue the set. As Dr. Rushall points out, once they have reached neural fatigue and can no longer hold technique, they will start missing the rep (or failing, we call it missing). I see this with my kids now (and we too are new to it). I can see where if they miss a rep & just swim harder the next one they could make it but I don’t want them to swim harder necessarily, esp with bad technique.

During our sets, I am constantly pointing out what they need to do technique wise to keep it up. My goal & hopes is they figure this out on their own!!

[drpaul]

kevin,

I could be wrong but Glenn could be referring to the hierarchy of importance Rushall mentions:
1)biomechanics(technique)
2)psychology(mental control)
3)physiology(conditioning)

physiology(conditioning) meaning the actual USRPT set itself…..in that case representing 1/3. At least that’s my interpretation of the post

[drpaul]

ha…..I was thinking the same thing. I was like, “Man, I know I’ve answered this somewhere!”

[drpaul]

you can email me if you wish

drpaulwhite@gmail.com

thanks

[drpaul]

I thinks it’s maturity & experience. About 100% of our 10&u sprint everything. I’ve done 1 of 2 things. 1) use an older kid to pace them, 2) stick the tempo trainer under their cap

[drpaul]

crmejean…..that’s awesome. There’s a sm classroom at our pool facility where you can use video, etc. & I’m wanting to video our swimmers then spend some time before or even after practice to look at their strokes & then compare them to elite swimmers that we are trying to emulate.

I like the IM workout. I’m assuming it’s at 200 pace?

would love to see those forms

Paul

[drpaul]

wom…..great points

I guess my concern were drills taking away from the recovery but I could keep them to a minimum instead of the old drill style (4×100 fingertip drags!!)

I do know that even after only 1 practice I loved being able to interact as much as I wanted with them about swim, racing, technique, etc… instead of making sure we got enough crap yardage in!!

I don’t guess these kids are elite (yet) but they all made states, sectionals and are close to jr nat cuts.

I’ll keep working on it…

[drpaul]

Thanks Aleksswim,

I failed to mention that the kids that I’m working with ended the season with some USRPT work albeit not 100% like now.

We will definitely take our time & work up to it. In the meantime, if your practice is 90min & you did 1 set or even 2, what in the world do you do the rest of the time!! esp, given Dr. Rushall doesn’t want drill work done.

I suppose I could reduce the practice time for now

Any ideas of what races to work on for them? Do I just pick their top 3 events or so & use those?

thanks again,

Paul

[drpaul]

Yea, I thought about it the next day as far as the 50’s from the blocks. I’ll keep those in the water as to enhance the underwaters. We seemed to have plenty of time to discuss technique corrections though.

I’ll head to warning and reduce the reps but it didn’t seem like we did much at all. 2 sets in an hour (of which they may have swam completed 800yrds). I added time to their pace to ease it up a bit so they get use to it. We had around a half hour of rest/recovery/discussion. They had fun & left the pool with more energy than ever.

Still wondering if getting in 3-4sets 4days/wk is sufficient? It may take us a month to get there but just wondering.

[drpaul]

Yea, dividing it by 4 was how we did it. It seemed to work ok but I’m still unsure about splits that are different (back/front).

I believe I’ve seen them done off the blocks before. I only had the 3 swimmers & each had their own lane. It was a choice at 200 pace. Once they came in and made their time it only took 5sec to get out & back up so it seemed to work alright. Unless I totally messed something up.

I could see how multiples in a lane could mess that up though

Paul

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